Arena[SWIMMING!] hey, guys, remember when Phelps won all those medals last summer? And the sport?

I don't think the arena has a thread for discussion of pro swimming. This shall be it.

So does anyone follow competitive swimming at all? I do. I started swimming last January. Swimming is one of those sports that doesn't seem to be as popular in the USA as it is in other places around the world (namely Australia, land of Thorpe, the king before Phelps).

Right now, the competitive swimming at Worlds is between its second and third days, and the big question of the hour is whether or not Phelps will beat Paul Biedermann of Germany in the 200 free. Biedermann beat him by 30 milliseconds in the semis, but if you know Phelps, you know a loss provides him with incredible motivation to win. You can watch the races starting tomorrow at 11:50am ET here.

Another race that'll make good viewing is the 100 fly final on Saturday, when Phelps and a certain Serbian will probably once again go head-to-head. That's right, Milorad Cavic (from the infamous Beijing race where Phelps won by a hundredth of a second) is back! I think Phelps will beat Cavic soundly, especially considering he just set the new WR.

Last but not least.... the world-governing body for all things aquatically athletic, FINA, has announced that the tech suits will be BANNED! come January 1, 2010. This makes me glad I didn't drain a small fortune on a suit. Swimming may end up returning to the olden days of briefs and jammers only, if the ban stands.

I enjoy watching it during the Olympics but don't follow it much otherwise. I swam on a team for 8 years (I think) as a kid, but was never good enough to really keep up. I love recreational swimming though, and I'm one of those odd people who enjoy doing the butterfly stroke.

If they're banning the suits, do the records set from last year's Olympics still count? Or do they retroactively wipe them because of the suits?

The records from the Olympics, etc won't be in trouble. Its the ones from this World Championships that are questionable (the banned suits only came around this year.) For example...the new 400m world record holder has improved his best time by seven seconds since donning his suit and said without it he wouldn't be within 2 seconds of the mark.

This pretty much sums up my feeling on the subject. Even the swimmers admit they wouldn't be touching the world records without the new suits.

Edit: Except the part about "Does a 10-year-old boy in Baltimore want to break Paul Biedermann's record? Is that going to make him join swimming?" I don't care who holds the world record, so long as it was achieved on a level field.

So Biedermann beat Phelps, and set a new world record 1:42 flat. My congratulations to him, but honestly, I still think it was the suit. We'll see what happens next year. Bowman was totally classless, though. Phelps seems to be taking it much better (publicly, at least).

No question it was the suit, Biedermann essentially says so himself, but let's not forget that last year, it was Phelps who had the best suit. Don't forget, one of his golds in Beijing was by 1/100th of a second, against someone who didn't have the same suit as him.

Ah, but last year, Biedermann was nowhere near the top of the times for 200 free (as when he raced in the 200 free at Beijing). This year... he's the WR holder. He acknowledges, it's the suit. On the other hand, I don't think the suit had anywhere near as much to do with Phelps's victories in Beijing as did his training and hard work for several years beforehand.

Most of his wins in Beijing, the suit played no role. He won almost every race by a dominating margin. But one of his individual golds was by .01 second, with second place going to a guy who didn't have the speedo suit. If people are going to jump all over Biedermann, in fairness you have to admit that without the suit, Phelps probably wouldn't have won all 8 golds.

"The same people who last year were thought to have a clear advantage wearing the LZR Racer now are at a disadvantage in the suit. There are those who wonder if the sentiment driving the new-suit backlash is sour grapes. Milorad Cavic, who lost to Phelps by one-hundredth of a second in the 100 butterfly in Beijing, said, ?Now if I was to beat Phelps, they would say, ?Cavic beat Phelps because of the suit.??"

That clearly implied that Cavic did not have the Speedo suit in Beijing, at least that's how I read it. Interestingly, the updated version of the article doesn't have that quote anymore. If Cavic did have the Speedo suit, I obviously retract my last post.

And to be clear, I believe Phelps is the greatest swimmer ever, hands down. I'm mainly reacting to the way his coach has gone completely overboard, which I find completely classless. When Phelps (and others) had the best suit, I didn't hear him calling for a ban.

Like I said, the quote is not in the article anymore. It really stuck out to me when I first read it because all the American coverage was so unbelievably biased against Biedermann, as if he could barely swim one lap without drowning but for the suit. He's not the only one wearing that suit, but he was the only one who broke those two records.

I like the message Biedermann got from Ian Thorpe after he broke the 400m record: "It was also you, it wasn't just the suit." That's class. Phelps and especially his coach should take note.

Not sure if anyone's been paying attention but the World Championships are on again. Australia is easily winning the silver medal tally but only a couple of golds. However both of those are in events we rarely or never win: the 4x100 free and 100 free men's. There's been a good mix of winners, Brazil, Denmark, Italy and France have all popped up for a couple of golds.

It's been interesting seeing a lot of the times...they seem to go out hard, under WR, but fade at the end. Only Lochte has set one, in the 200IM.